Your Heart Through My Fist
by made-in-wonder
Summary: Written for 1sentence on LiveJournal. Irateshipping. Malik's getting dressed when he receives a fist to the stomach and the judgment: "Your reflexes suck – can't be helped, gotta teach you to fight."


**Disclaimer**: I don't own these characters, this setting, or this inanely Japanese manly aesthetic.

**Notes**: Written for the "1sentence" challenge on LiveJournal, wherein you write one sentence per prompt for a list of 50 prompts, oftentimes to give a full picture of a pairing instead of just a single anecdote.

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**#01 – Motion**

Malik's getting dressed when he receives a fist to the stomach and the judgment: "Your reflexes _suck _– can't be helped, gotta teach you to fight."

**#02 – Cool**

"An' then I renamed it 'Jounouchi Fire'!" he brags, chest puffed out, and Malik is almost glad his soul was suppressed for that duel.

**#03 – Young**

We're still _children_, thinks Malik, staring at Jounouchi's uniform and feeling oddly small.

**#04 – Last**

No one will have these scars after me, Malik realizes as Jounouchi runs his fingers over them; for a moment, he feels unique again.

**#05 – Wrong**

Malik's well aware stopping just short of your opponent demonstrates greater control, but "control" and "Jounouchi" have never really mixed.

**#06 – Gentle**

"Put your heart into it!" he hears Jounouchi yelling, and then a foot's underneath his ankle, his fist's missing its target, and his back's bruising beneath the scars.

**#07 – One**

He'll never tell Malik, but Jounouchi remembers the rage when his own frustration and his 'master's' had been united, twisted, turned; he'll especially never tell Malik that pain never really stopped.

**#08 – Thousand**

Jounouchi couldn't care less how long Malik's family had been imprisoned in that tomb; half a childhood, in his opinion, would be more than enough to drive anyone up into the sun.

**#09 – King**

Jounouchi brags about his Battle City placement to anyone who'll listen and even some who won't; Malik keeps his head down and his lips full only of praises for the winner.

**#10 – Learn**

Things I Learned Today, by Malik Ishtar: take pinky ring off _before _you punch.

**#11 – Blur**

To each their own illegalities: Jounouchi cuts class and Malik doesn't believe in the speed limit.

**#12 – Wait**

Malik never punches first (he stares Jounouchi down until the other boy snaps, which is just how Malik likes it).

**#13 – Change**

"This is for what you did to Mai!" shouts Jounouchi – then mutters, offering an icepack after the blow, "and this is for taking it back."

**#14 – Command**

_I should have used this,_ muses Malik as Jounouchi defends Shizuka, _fueled by his love, not my hatred, he might never have escaped._

**#15 – Hold**

"Uh, Malik, glad you're happy an' all, man, but you banged me up pretty bad yesterday an' I still got to breathe..."

**#16 – Need**

Malik doesn't hear the protests; someone believes in him, someone's teaching him to be strong on his own – and besides, now that Jounouchi's guard is down, he can try that throw they've been practicing.

**#17 – Vision**

Sometimes Shizuka tags along when they wander the city, and then Jounouchi has two siblings to whom he shows the world.

**#18 – Attention**

The first few times he went out with Malik, Jounouchi thought the girls' heads all turned because they recognized _him_.

**#19 – Soul**

"This is a man's fight," says Jounouchi while Malik jabs at a mannequin, patched up for now; "you feel the enemy's heart an' pain when you land the hits yourself."

**#20 – Picture**

Shizuka giggles when Malik's fascinated by the photo of Jounouchi in her wallet - "he's six there!" - not knowing Malik first saw his own reflection only five years prior.

**#21 – Fool**

Strategy, to Malik, is like water; Jounouchi is like fire, which explains his dueling style.

**#22 – Mad**

The first time he almost enjoys the pain, Malik has to go retch in a sink; Jounouchi's there to catch him, though, to call him a sissy and to get him standing again – because that's _over _and never coming back.

**#23 – Child**

Malik has never seen a tape like this one Jounouchi's lent him before.

**#24 – Now**

"You beat me again," shrugs Malik, switching off his duel disk, but Jounouchi replies: "At least you're playin' like a duelist now."

**#25 – Shadow**

Once he'd learned the Ishtars' history, he'd stopped finding Rishid intimidating – until Jounouchi brings Malik home after curfew.

**#26 – Goodbye**

Malik tends to end phone calls rather abruptly, leaving Jounouchi screaming "Bye to you too, ya bastard!" to an empty line.

**#27 – Hide**

Malik helps Jounouchi improve in his own way, too: by tricking him at every opportunity – yet he never forgets whose will is stronger.

**#28 – Fortune**

"So you, uh, still got any of that Ghouls money?" Jounouchi asks one day, feigning casualty, and Malik provides some excuse that won't imply "living on sister's allowance".

**#29 – Safe**

The best part of sparring comes after, when they're patching each other up and Malik can lean on Jounouchi, just a little bit more every day.

**#30 – Ghost**

Jounouchi's father swings, but Malik intercepts the blow; never again, he vows, will a son be struck on my watch.

**#31 – Book**

"You speak _how _many languages?" asks Jounouchi, who struggles with kanji; Malik tells him "shut up" in five different tongues, two of which are extinct.

**#32 – Eye**

Malik remembers watching himself through Jounouchi's eyes, which helps when deciding how to dress.

**#33 – Never**

They don't have Burger World in Egypt – clearly, Jounouchi has quite a lot of catching up to arrange.

**#34 – Sing**

Karaoke night lasts one song apiece; declaring "dreadful" and "you suck", they rent a movie instead.

**#35 – Sudden**

Jounouchi realizes halfway through the kiss that Malik still plays dirty, but by then he's also halfway to the ground.

**#36 – Stop**

Malik leers over Jounouchi, bending his arm backwards; Jounouchi slaps the floor with his free hand, and Malik picks the kiss right back up where they'd left it.

**#37 – Time**

"Yugi gave me this card," brags Jounouchi, handing it over; Malik just smirks, thinking how important it'd been that he give a card _away_.

**#38 – Wash**

Basket in hand, Malik's kicked out of Jounouchi's room: "I barely do mine! Do your own frickin' laundry!"

**#39 – Torn**

"There are ways of understanding without violence," says Isis, conflicted; but when she sees the passion simmering beneath Malik's black eye she can't help but admire the spark his new 'friend' has lit.

**#40 – History**

"It's a club," decides Jounouchi, "the 'Messed Up Till We Met Yugi Club'"; "'until'?" asks Malik, and is quick enough now to block.

**#41 – Power**

"You want to know what power is?" Malik asks cryptically; Jounouchi nods, distracted by the way Malik's shifted in his chair, then gets flicked on the nose with a silk-and-leather smirk: "That, right there."

**#42 – Bother**

"Jounouchi _is _a dog," Malik insists, "loyal and steadfast"; _oi_, grumbles Jounouchi, _whose side are you on?_

**#43 – God**

Malik always did have a weakness for gods of light and flame.

**#44 – Wall**

For someone who likes to watch his opponents crumble, sparring Jounouchi couldn't be more frustrating: he takes hit after hit without complaint, until Malik can barely see for envy.

**#45 – Naked**

"It's kinda like... ancient Egyptian yakuza or somethin'," Jounouchi pronounces, and Malik decides next time he'll keep his shirt _on_.

**#46 – Drive**

"You're dumber than Honda," shouts Jounouchi, "at least _he _wears a helmet!"

**#47 – Harm**

"So you got hit," shrugs Jounouchi as he looms over Malik, then offers him a hand: "Important thing's to get right on back up."

**#48 – Precious**

First Mai, then Malik, Anzu observes, proposing Jounouchi has a 'type'; who's next, Kaiba?; meanwhile, Malik plots a company's downfall.

**#49 – Hunger**

"I don't eat meat," Malik admits, and blinks when Jounouchi's moved to tears.

**#50 – Believe**

"Could ya feel it this time?" asks Jounouchi, nursing a bruised rib; "yeah," pants Malik around a swollen cheek, exhilarated, "and it was fun."


End file.
